


A Hero and A Key

by odalibuc



Category: Kingdom Hearts, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Gen, Link is so done, Post-KH 3D, Post-Majora's Mask, What Is Wrong With ME, also how do I write fight scenes, and I promise the OCs aren't going to be horrible or even the main focus, and why did I put two of them in the same chapter when I've never done any of them before, give this bby a hug please, okay I finally know what I'm doing with this, protect this child at all costs, sora is a ray of sunshine, sorry guys they aren't gay, there just needs to be more people in Hyrule than Link Zelda and Ganondorf, this is going to be platonic Link/Zelda at the most because my asexual ass can't write romance, why are they so hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-07 13:52:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8803357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/odalibuc/pseuds/odalibuc
Summary: In which Hyrule is assaulted by dark forces (again), the gods aren’t done with their hero, and Xehanort is after more than Kingdom Hearts.Also in which another hero is traveling through the cosmos and comes across a soul that is very much in need of his light.





	1. The Hero's Journey

Your name is Link, and when you were young, you dreamed of glory. You played at being a hero in the woods, waiting for a fairy. When you were ten, you got your wish. You walked inside a tree to break a curse, but you were too late and the closest thing you had to a parent was dead because of it. You were shunned by your peers and left the forest with only a small sword, a splintery shield, an ocarina, and a sacred gift to your name. You cried that night, plagued by nightmares Navi was unable to quell. (Kokiri die outside the forest if you leave you will die)

When you were ten, you met a princess. She was kind, and cared for her people, and together you hatched a plan to defeat the man who killed the only guardian you had ever known. You think you can handle this big, important mission.

You climb a mountain and the leader of the Gorons becomes your Sworn Brother. You bring hope to the starving, and in exchange are gifted with the second stone you need. You swim past a waterfall and walk into the open mouth of an ailing whale to save the life of yet another princess. She swears you her husband when both of you are older, but you get the sacred stone you need.

By then you were tired. Worn. Dreams of adventure became dreams of a warm bed. Playing pretend became fighting for your life at the behest of a princess you barely knew. Your shield burned away and was replaced by one so heavy you could not remove it from your back. You were very much ready to be done with this mission of yours and go back home.

But it wasn’t to be.

As you trudged toward the castle, the princess and her caretaker flew past you riding on horseback, leaving behind the last thing you needed to obtain the sacred sword that could defeat the man pursuing her. You stood up to him, of course, doing what you could to keep her safe. He blasted you with magic for your efforts and rode off in pursuit of his target. You scrounged up the Ocarina of Time from the moat of the castle, praying your quest could come to an end. Bleeding, battered, and aching all over, you made your way into the pristine Temple of Time. There, you opened the Door of Time and drew the Master Sword from its pedestal.

And woke up seven years later.

That shield no longer sat heavy on your back. Its weight shifted to the weight on your heart. You met a man with another ultimatum (find the Sages, Link!). When you left the Temple, you see the truth of Rauru’s warning firsthand. The once-lively market now reeks of death and rot, and Redeads sit in the shadows, waiting for unsuspecting prey. It is disconcerting, to say the least, to see all the skeletons that rest unburied, some still reaching for help that will never come.

When you try to sleep that night, you try to convince yourself that you are doing what you were born to do. That you are following in the footsteps of heroes before you. You tell yourself you are fighting for your princess, that you are fighting for the world you live in, that you should be honored to carry the fate of the world on your shoulders. For a minute or two, you almost believe it.

When you are seventeen, having seen none of the years between now and when you were ten, you meet your best friend, and try to keep a straight face as she tells you the two of you will never see each other again. You manage to hold in your tears as the Great Deku Tree Sprout explains that everything you knew about yourself was a lie (you could leave the forest because you were actually Hylian, but Saria was a Kokiri was she going to die in that Chamber of Sages?) You do not weep until you return to Hyrule Field, and then you grieve in earnest for the childhood you lost to your destiny. You meet again with your sworn brother, and he too must remain where you cannot go. The same is true for the woman that declared herself your future bride, and you feel guilty in your relief.

And then you are ten again. Your shield is too heavy on your back, your sword too light in your hands, and you cannot pass through the market without feeling sick. Cannot walk through Kakariko and think of the fear and tension in everyone’s faces and the air itself as they glance towards that broken drawbridge and wonder how much longer they will be safe. You dive down into the well you drained, and the stench of gore and rot is so thick, so heavy, that you cannot help but vomit. But you claim the eyes that can see the truth for yourself, and again become an adult without ever growing up.

And the Shadow Temple is so much worse than the bottom of the well. Skeletons remain chained to the walls, and the dead, pulsating mounds of flesh that attempt to devour you fall before your sword but rise again in your nightmares. You are glad to leave, only to make your way across the desert. You are accepted into a tribe of thieves and do not know how to feel about that, but you keep going because _one Sage left and then I’m done and I can go home_ and that thought is all that’s keeping you going. Courage is well and good but determination is all that keeps you moving.

And twin witches kidnap and brainwash the only Gerudo that was anything near kind to you, the only one that wanted to help you, and you get a new shield and strength you should not have (that should have been hers I promised she could have it). But you rescue the thief and kill the witches, and they were the first people you ever killed. Their blood is far too red on your sword, and you rub your hands raw even with cloth between them and the blade trying to make the Master Sword pristine again. You just want to go home.

But the end of your journey is at hand, and Sheik reveals that he was Zelda in the Temple of Time, and then is stolen away from you as you stand helpless before her. But you have the sacred arrows, and steel yourself as you dive into the heart of the evil in Hyrule. You strike down the King of Evil and escape the collapsing tower. You watch in horror as a man mutates into the form of a monster and you fight that too, and then finally -

Its over. You feel his skull give way like butter beneath your blade, and then Zelda is casting a spell. He is sealed away, and you are pulled into the Sacred Realm with Zelda. She is talking but you can barely hear her, because you can _finally go home._ You giver her the ocarina when she asks for it, and she sends you back.

And suddenly you are ten again, trapped in a body that feels too small with a mind that knows what no child should ever discover. And you march right back to that princess, and together you concoct another plan to keep the Triforce from Ganondorf’s hands.

You are eleven when Zelda sends you away. You go to search for Navi, the one being who could understand you now. You have the Ocarina of Time on your belt (now the Door of Time cannot be opened, the Triforce is safe). You ride Epona, who is younger than the steed that bore you on your journey before, but she is a familiar comfort anyway and to you that’s enough.

Its more than you expected to have.

You are deep in the Lost Woods, deeper than even the Kokiri dare to tread, when suddenly you are knocked from your horse and are too stunned to keep a masked Skull Kid from stealing your ocarina - the last evidence of what you’ve been through. He steals your horse, taunts you, and then takes away your humanity.

You are eleven when you are stuffed into a form that isn’t yours. Your new Deku body is too small, too top-heavy; you can hardly run without falling. The white fairy leads you to a new place, called Termina, where that Skull Kid had been busy. The mask-maker gives you yet another ultimatum: reclaim your ocarina, and he will return you to your proper too-small shape. You have three days.

In the end, you have no idea how long it actually took. You stopped counting after the tenth time. You reclaim your ocarina and the world almost ends, and oh, how you were naive before. Zelda had you believing that you were saving the world. The plants and animals of Hyrule were fine; only the people suffered during Ganondorf’s reign. But here, everything stands to die when the moon is falling to the earth.

You are pretty sure you are still eleven when you meet the Deku King, beneath the mask you were cursed to wear. You watch as a monkey is boiled alive, all because you took too long to find the witch in the woods. Because you stopped to explore. Because the guards at this palace were much better at their job than the soldiers in Hyrule castle. There are two hours until the moon falls and you haven’t slept in _days,_ and you bring your ocarina, now your Deku pipes, to your snout and play the familiar melody.

You think you might still be eleven when you meet the guardian of the Woodfall temple. The temple smelled like moss and mold, and if you closed your eyes you were almost home. But the drums from far off never ceased, and the water smelled like the same poison as outside, so you kept moving. The being standing between you and the guardian of the temple was tall, with a sword to make Biggoron proud and an eye in his head, and you are pretty sure you are going to die of blood loss when you retrieve Odolwa’s remains and are taken to a place that feels like the Sacred Realm. Tatl makes sure you remember the Oath to Order after you restore the Great Fairy, and you feel bad about making the Deku princess wait (she is so much like Ruto and you miss her so much), but you are dying again and really, your priorities have saved your life before and will continue to do so.

You do not know how old you are when you meet the hero of the Gorons and heal his sorrows. When you wear his mask you can feel the regrets he had, the weight on his shoulders when he died and it makes you scream in agony. But you overcome Snowhead Temple with his power, and as you leave for the Other Realm you can feel some of the regret leave the mask.

Its never really gone, though.

You are so, so very tired.

You decide not to think about how old you might be when you arrive at Romani Ranch late and are helpless to watch as Romani and the cows she wanted to protect are both taken by those things. You assist Cremia on the ranch for the rest of the next day, because you cannot help but feel responsible for her loss. You go back to the beginning every time after that.

You aren’t thinking about how old you are when you begin obsessing. You know so many people’s schedules by now, and they can distract you from the eye in Great Bay, from the fish that almost ate you whole. You are acutely aware that you cannot save Romani because you are entangled with a monster, that an old lady was just robbed because you were freeing a spirit from imprisonment in a graveyard.

You didn’t even have time for more than one song with the Indi-go-gos, and your Zora mask is not as light as it should be.

You have given up hope that you will ever age again when you heal a man from his curse and watch his daughter sob into his chest in relief. You never knew what it was like to be on either end of that interaction. _Maybe I am a Kokiri after all,_ you think to yourself bitterly. _After all, I’m never going to grow up._

You spend the most time in Clock Town when you are struggling through Stone Tower Temple. The ruins remind you so much of Hyrule Castle Town in that future that will never be, but the sting is dull in comparison. You had no memories of when this place was thriving, and there are no more bones but the Stalchilds wandering the graveyard.

A boy and his fiancé are separated and reunited three times before you are through with them. Twice, because you delivered the priority mail for Kafei’s mother but then saw the postman. You went back so he could deliver that letter and then be commanded to leave.

After that, you went back to Stone Tower Temple. You are so, so tired, but you press on, battling the ghosts of the past and the monsters that sprang up in the ages between the fall of Ikana and Majora’s curses. You strike down Twinmold and nearly fall to your knees in relief because you finally found them all.

You manage one more cycle after that. You sleep, and prepare for what you know is going to be a difficult battle. You take care to save Romani and help Cremia stay in business. You reunite the lovers, who are satisfied with death as long as they are together. And then when the night of the final day is almost gone and the sun is close to rising, you climb up the clock tower and meet with the Skull Kid again. You call the giants, and they come and stop the moon, and then you and that mask go into the moon for one last fight.

The remains you’ve collected play games with you, and demand payment in the form of masks. Some, you are all too keen to give away. Others linger in your grip as you remember what it cost to receive them. Those children, always questioning the nature of friendships and digging away at the grief in your heart, finally leave once all your masks are gone. All but the ones you refused to part with. The weight of the Deku, Goron, and Zora masks is a familiar, comforting ache as you go to meet Majora’s Mask. It gives you one more mask as a token, and then whisks you off to play one last game.

The battle is fierce, and somehow so much worse than the battle with Ganondorf, even though there is no human flesh to cut into with your sword. It wears you down, and in the end you wear the mask it gifted you. The power within is immense and the fight becomes far too easy. When the battle is done, you hurl it away from yourself in agony, and vow to never wear it again.

You are so, so tired, but the battle is over.

You wake up next to your horse, and after some parting words you bid Termina farewell. It has healed you somehow, smoothed over the jagged edges left behind by all you experienced in Hyrule.

You spend one more year in the Lost Woods searching for Navi before returning to Hyrule proper.

You return to Hyrule and Zelda a year after you leave Termina, and Zelda believes you are twelve so you nod and agree. Hyrule is on its way to ruin. She told her father of Ganondorf’s plans for the Triforce and this has started another war between the Gerudo. You are too young to enlist, so you stay by Zelda’s side and train with Impa for four years. You swiftly overcome all the knights in the service of Hyrule, and are entrusted with running messages to and from the battlefield. You are Zelda’s trusted advisor and friend.

You are (apparently) sixteen years old. And you are so, so tired.


	2. The Key's Decision

Your name is Sora, and you have a lot to think about. Not too long ago (a week? maybe?) you were taking an exam for your Mark of Mastery, so you could finally be called a Keyblade Master. You didn’t pass; Xehanort and his shenanigans got in the way and you were a little bit possessed, but your best friend Riku did, and that was something he really needed.

When you were young, you dreamed of glory in that far-off way most children do. When you were four, you and Riku met your other best friend, Kairi, after she washed up on the beach after a meteor shower. Ten years later, the three of you were separated when your home islands were destroyed by the darkness. The three of you wanted an adventure, and you got it. 

It could have been much worse for you than it was. Riku wound up in the care of a cruel sorceress, and his heart was pushed into the darkness. Kairi’s heart wound up inside your own, and her body was like a lifeless puppet until your restored her. But you wound up in a place called Traverse Town, where there were people willing to support you and where you made friends that came with you to look for the ones you’d been separated from.

Looking back, that first night had been the hardest. The only two people that were there with you had been ordered to follow your weapon around. They were nice enough of course, but one was skeptical and the other seemed to just be bumbling along. Missing home was an ache you thought you would be ready for, and getting torn away is so much worse than leaving on your own. If your new companions heard you crying that night, neither of them said anything.

The next night was easier. Fighting alongside other people really brings people together, and as you worked, slept, and ate together, you, Donald, and Goofy became fast friends. You humored each other at the coliseum and laughed with each other in the jungle. You became stronger together and were grateful for each other’s support when crossing the desert or being swallowed by a whale.

And when you had to learn to swim with a tail in Atlantica, you learned together. When you dressed up as monsters in Halloween Town, it was as a group. You learned to fly together and traveled into the darkest part of the universe as a team.

You fought tooth and nail against the forces of darkness, wielding the Keyblade to beat back the Heartless encroaching on the Realm of Light. You made even more friends along the way and saw many amazing things. You fought with your friend Riku when he had been turned against you, and watched in horror when he was used as a puppet by the leader of the Heartless.

You did not hesitate to restore Kairi’s heart once you had an idea of how to do so, and became a Heartless for a short time. But you followed her light back to her and it made you human again, and you went on to fight the Heartless at the place where they were spilling into the Realm of Light. With Donald and Goofy, you locked the door to darkness with the help of their king. Riku was on the other side of the door.

You parted ways with your childhood friend, hope strong in your heart and ready for the day you would meet him again.

Later, you would learn from your friends that you had been lured into a place called Castle Oblivion, where your memories were taken apart piece by piece. But all you remember is approaching an impossible castle and then nothing.

You remember waking up in Twilight Town a year later, feeling refreshed and with a bitter ache in your heart slowly fading. At the behest of King Mickey and Master Yen Sid, you went adventuring again to fight the Nobodies of Organization XIII.

Despite the time you spent away from things, the universe was still the same. There were fewer Heartless for the most part though.

You met up with old friends and made new ones in places you wouldn’t have believed were possible just two years ago. You met enchanted furniture-people, joined an army, and gained the support of the spirit of a warrior in the underworld.

You met the queen of Disney Castle and traveled into the past to save the future of that world. You took part in a musical, ecstatic that Atlantica was untroubled by darkness. You got to be a pirate and a lion, and met Santa Claus himself. You were digitized and made friends with a program that came to run Radiant Garden’s mainframe (whatever that means). All with Donald and Goofy by your side.

You learned over the course of your second journey that you had a Nobody named Roxas, who was created when you became a Heartless. You met him briefly in the World that Never Was when he fought you in anger over the loss of his only friend. The two of you reconciled, and you walked through the castle, feeling Roxas’s painful nostalgia in place of your own curiosity, and were just fine with that. He had just as much right to feel things as you did, after all.

You, Riku, and Kairi found each other again and you and Riku dove into the darkness to defeat Xemnas once and for all. When you found yourselves in the Realm of Darkness after emerging victorious, the two of you were content to fade because the light was safe.

But a door opened back into the light and you and Riku went through it. You found yourself home at last.

Weeks passed, and you turned sixteen. You got a letter from your friends at Disney Castle. There were people lost in the darkness that helped you to grow into the person you are now, and you felt obligated to help them. So you and Riku left your home once again, this time to take the Keyblade Master Exam. And Riku passed but you didn’t, which leads to where you are right now.

Right now you are sitting in a cafe in Traverse Town’s first district, absently scratching behind the ear of a Meow Wow asleep on your lap and wondering what to do next. After the post-exam party ended, you grabbed Yen Sid’s Star Shard and let it take you to Traverse Town and the Dream Eater Spirits that you left behind when you woke up. You can’t help but think about why Riku passed and you didn’t.

Riku was able to become a master because he lost to his darkness once and then overcame it, which made him resistant to that darkness now. The one time you fell into darkness, you weren’t even gone for an hour before Kairi made you whole again. You’ve never had to overcome anything like that on your own and it almost cost you your heart. If you want to beat Xehanort and rescue all of those people that are lost now, you need to find the kind of strength Riku had.

Right now, you’re the only human in Traverse Town, sitting in a cafe and munching on granola bars you pilfered from the Highwind before you left Yen Sid’s tower. And you are completely at a loss for what to do or where to go next.

The problem with going on two adventures in a row, you muse to yourself, is that you have no idea what to do with yourself when you’re done. You noticed this feeling when you were back home for the first time after you left. You were very glad to be home again, but part of you was itching to get back out and travel, to see the rest of what the universe has to offer. You need to travel, to move, to go out and find whatever is missing from your heart that made you susceptible to Xehanort and his mind games. Your heart needs to be stronger. You didn’t find that strength anywhere you’ve been so far, so your mind is made up to go searching for it somewhere new. After all, if there was something your heart needed and it could be found somewhere you’ve been, you would have found it by now.

But what could possibly be missing? Your heart is full of light, even though its been consumed by the darkness before. Maybe you need to go in willingly, to be surrounded by the kind of evil mindless monsters like the Heartless were incapable of and to become stronger from resisting it. Riku gained that strength by climbing back out of the darkness inch by painful inch. It would be impossible to achieve that so easily now.

And there was the challenge: most of the universe was free of all of the conflict and darkness from before, thanks to your efforts. Whenever you came across human evil, you had no idea how to deal with it except to throw yourself in its path and beat it back. There was no finesse or attempt to see beyond the surface once they showed their true colors. You never saw more than a little bit of what they had done, and managed to beat them every time. 

So what now was there to do, when the only threat you could think of still loomed distantly on the horizon?

The Meow Wow stretches and looks at you before leaping to the ground with a chirr. It digs around in your pockets, and you let it, all too familiar with this behavior and secure in the knowledge that it would stop when it realized you didn’t have any treats in there. But instead of pulling its nose out of your pockets and trotting away like usual, it pulls your Star Shard out with a triumphant squeak and dashes off.

“Get back here with that!” You take off after the fat little Spirit, watching as it barges into the Third District and keeps on running. You catch up as it reaches Merlin’s old house, grabbing it around its belly and tickling it until it drops the Shard. “What’s gotten into you, little guy?” The Meow Wow just squeaks again and trots inside.

You follow it with a shrug, pausing only to pocket the Shard and adjust a Komory Bat that has landed on your head so it doesn’t fall off. Merlin’s old study has been unoccupied for a long time, and it really shows. Dust coats every surface and every step you take kicks up another cloud. You space out a bit as you remember spending time in this study, feeling Roxas look around through your eyes. You are broken out of your daze when the Meow Wow, with the help of another Komory Bat that was watching from the rafters, drops a rather large book on your foot.

“Ow!” You jump a little and startle the Spirit off of its perch in your hair, and bend down to rub your foot. As you do, you glance over at the book your Meow Wow found for you. It’s old, older than anything Merlin ever had, and the pages were starting to peel from the binding. There is a broken chain attached to the spine. You sit down and begin to read.

It’s difficult work at first, because the book doesn’t seem to be written in any language you’ve ever seen, but the keyblade has a little magic that kicks in to get rid of any language barriers its wielder is facing. So the harder you look at the foreign letters, the more of them you understand.

They weave a fascinating tale, and three pages in you take the book back to the cafe to read in better light, away from the dust that was making it hard to breath. The book talks about the legends of a place called Hyrule. According to the book, the three Goddesses Din, Nayru, and Farore made the world and left behind a sacred relic. A war was fought over this relic, and it was sealed away into a place called the Sacred Realm. But people were still fighting to control it, and a legendary Hero stopped an evil sorcerer trying to steal it by sealing him into something called the Four Sword.

You stay up late reading the book, which is called Legends and Beastiaries of The Lande of Hyrule. You manage to get more information about Hyrule from your reading, and the more you read the more you want to go see it for yourself. The land of Hyrule seems to be locked in conflict against darkness more often than not, and this darkness has nothing to do with Xehanort or Heartless. There are other legends in the book besides the Four Sword of the Picori, like the myth of the first hero forging something called the Master Sword and using it to slay the first evil to walk the land.

The next morning, you wake up with a grin on your face. “Alright! I’ve decided: I’m going to go see Hyrule for myself!” The Meow Wow (you’ve decided to name her Halley) trots along behind you as you gather all the supplies you might need for your trip. The great thing about Traverse Town is that it exists for those who need it, and that includes providing food and drink. The book didn’t really say a lot about what Hyrule was like or if there would be hotels or anything, so you bring along camping gear just in case.

It doesn’t take you very long to prepare, since you’re used to traveling light and it hasn’t really been that much of a problem before. Before you know it, you have everything you need to go off on an adventure. You look out at the Dream Eaters around you, wondering if you should take any with you. Halley wanders over and sits on your foot, so you’re pretty sure she’s coming whether you want her to or not. The Star Shard activates before you can pick any other Spirits to come along, and the two of you zip through the sky toward a new adventure.


	3. The Hero's Day

_You are riding on Epona, racing through the battlefield with sword and shield at the ready. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a moblin approaching, charging with a spear. Left handed grip; no time to draw your bow, you quickly note. You nudge Epona to veer to your left as you swing your sword. Immediately after, before it has the chance to retaliate, you swing back with the momentum from your previous blow. As you do so, you turn Epona to face your opponent. The moblin has dropped its spear to clutch at its side, dripping vile black ichor into the ground below. You draw your bow before it can recover and take a deep breath as you reach for an arrow. Nock. Draw. Loose. You nod grimly to yourself when your opponent falls and disappears in a swath of green flame. The arrow lodged firmly between its eyes burns to nothing with the monster. 48 arrows remaining._

You spur Epona on, eyes darting left and right as you search the carnage. Where is he? In the distance, you hear a voice cry out, a shout carried over the wind to rise above the noise of soldiers and monsters locked in battle.

“Thunder!”

And with a crackle of lighting, a powerful spell overcomes a circle of Wizzrobes 100 feet to your right. They vanish in a wave of blue-white fire, revealing a boy no older than you waving a large key like a sword with all the fury and skill of battles long-fought and hard-won.

You meet his eyes.

And then you jerk awake in your bed in Hyrule Castle, soaked in sweat. Your eyes dart around your room as you try to slow your racing heart the way Navi taught you all those years ago. Breathe in, 2, 3, 4, 5, and breathe out, 2, 3, 4, 5. Breathe in, 2, 3, 4, 5, and breathe out, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Once you are breathing normally again, you run your hands through your hair and check the small clock you brought back from Termina. It’s a bit battered, since you bought it third-hand from the Curiosity Shop and it’s been with you since before your first foray out to Woodfall. Its 10:00. You’re late for breakfast.

You sigh as you pull on your leggings, tunic, and boots, pausing to run your fingers through your hair in an attempt to look presentable before leaving your quarters.

You jog down the hallway, listening to the sound of your footfalls echoing off the stone walls around you. You make it into the castle kitchens as the cooks finish cleaning the dishes from breakfast. One or two of them grin at you with a raised eyebrow as they point to the counter, where they’ve left a plate for you.

For such a disciplined warrior, its amazing how often you oversleep.

You grab the bread and fish off the plate, using the bread as a vehicle to get the fish into your mouth without getting your fingers covered in grease, and walk at a more sedate pace to Zelda’s courtyard, where you know she will be waiting for you. Guards nod to you as you pass, and even after four years, walking openly through the castle seems odd after all the times you were thrown out when trying to see Zelda the first time.

You hear her before you se her; she practices with the royal family’s instruments in the mornings. Fortunately, today she decided on the harp. You’re not sure how well you would have handled the ocarina so soon after your nightmares.

You wait patiently at the edge of the courtyard as she finishes, watching her pluck the harp as the melody rises and falls, turning around on itself at the end. She sets the instrument down with a sigh when she’s done and looks up. Her face lights up the moment she sees you, and you walk towards her with a small smile of your own.

Its odd, you think to yourself as you approach her, how the two of you have come to be such close friends over the years. You met her when you had no idea what you were getting yourself into, and she was always the one to send you on your most terrifying journeys. She is the one that ripped your future away from you all those years ago. You resented her for a very, very long time.

It was so easy to resent her on your first journey. When your skin was pink and blistering from a brush with a dodongo or you couldn’t feel your arms through the painful shock sent rippling through you by a biri, you could just funnel all of your indignation, your hurt, into thoughts of her and her commands for you. And then she sent you into the Temple of Time, and the plan she concocted allowed Ganondorf into the Sacred Realm. Your childhood came and went without notice in your long sleep, and the world around you rotted.

And when it was all said and done, she had the gall to send you back into a world in which you no longer belonged and send you on another journey to place the stone marker above the grave of your childhood. And when you returned, more at ease with the world you found yourself living in but not all the way healed, you find that her choices once again led to devastation across the land of Hyrule.

And yet, coming into the circle of her influence again and gaining her absolute trust and friendship felt more right than you ever could have imagined. It felt almost like coming home, so you stayed by her side despite the shared experiences she could never know and all she put you through. You certainly aren’t ever going to tell her.

The two of you chat for some time, discussing how the war across Hyrule is progressing. The Lost Woods are still standing strong; the new Deku Tree Sprout seems to have enough magic even in his youth to keep the monsters at bay. The Zoras and Gorons are still maintaining their neutrality, though they still must fend off attacking stalfos and dodongos. Despite the attacks, Lord Jabu Jabu is in no danger of being cursed and Ganondorf was unable to seal Dodongo’s Cavern before he was forced back to the desert to start the war.

Ganondorf’s forces are growing at a worrying pace; he seems to have found a way to summon the monsters of Termina to augment his armies and now Wizzrobes, gekkos, live bombchus, blue jinx bubbles, and new monstrosities Link has taken to calling Darknuts march alongside his moblins, stal-warriors, Gerudo swords-women, and Iron Knuckles. Takkuris fly above supply routes and over Hylian encampments, stealing food, armor, and even weaponry.

The two of you lapse into comfortable silence when Impa comes into the courtyard with lunch and news that knights stationed at Lon Lon Ranch have successfully re-established a supply line between the ranch and the town, and that the forces in Kakariko successfully drove off another raiding party. When the two of you are done eating, Zelda begins to speak in the voice she saves for her most trusted confidants.

“Link… last night I had a dream.” She frowns and watches the butterflies flitting around the flowers in her garden as she speaks again. “In my dream, the whole of Hyrule was covered by a sea of darkness. There were two brightly shining lights keeping the darkness at bay; one from this castle and one from the field. But another light came from above. A star, shaped like a key, fell from the sky and crashed into the field; it cut through the darkness that was swallowing the other two lights.

“Two of those lights were the two of us, I’m sure of it… but I think another is coming to Hyrule soon; someone who will be of great help to us in the conflict that has overcome Hyrule. What do you think?” Only when Zelda was done speaking did she turn to face you, trepidation etched into her face.

“I had a dream last night too… I was on a battlefield looking for someone. There was a spellcaster waving a giant key around, and I woke up when the two of us were looking at each other. And last time we both had dreams like this…” You pause, searching for the right words. Zelda knows you don’t like talking about what brought you to her in the first place, and waits patiently for whatever you decide to tell her. “Last time, you decided that your dream meant I would be coming to see you and my dream showed me how I got the Ocarina of Time the first time around. I think this means someone else is coming that can help us, and that I’m going to find him.”

Zelda nods. “That’s what I thought too.” She stands and stretches, and after a moment pulls you up with her. “Enough talk of what we cannot control for now. There are some new recruits Sir Tarwick would like your assistance in evaluating.”

You nod and follow her and Impa to the training grounds located near the outer wall of the castle. It is a rather large courtyard, and while grass once softened the falls of those learning to fight, constant use and the frequent presence of horses has uprooted all the greenery in the area. When you arrive, Zelda ascends to the windows overlooking the yard with Impa at her side. You stride confidently into the yard itself and come to stand by the Arms Master and look over the new blood.

Sir Tarwick of Breechmor is a bear of a man, one who had earned quite the reputation on the battlefield. After making himself known in early skirmishes with the Gerudo before Ganondorf came offering false peace, he was granted knighthood by the king, who back then was still the crown prince, and continued to make his mark in tourneys. Now nearing fifty, Sir Tarwick’s hair was graying and his age showed on his face. His dark brown eyes were still shrewd as ever though, and his scars and the missing chunk of his ear (lost in a tourney melee that got out of hand) only served to make the newbies begin to sweat as they waited at attention.

His eyes sweep the crowd, likely taking note of the same things you do. Most of the men standing before you are just boys by the standards of Hyrule, yet all of them seem to be older than you. Larger, certainly. Most of them have the build of farmers, though one of them sports enough burn scars on his arms that you peg him for a smith’s apprentice. You’ll have to inquire what he’s been trained to work in; the castle is in sore need of new farriers, armorers, and swordsmiths.

“Well!” Sir Tarwick claps his hands together and nearly all the boys before you jump in surprise. “It seems the lot of you have come to learn how not to get killed on the battlefield! Now I’m not going to lie to you; there’s more to battle than just swinging a sword around and maybe lifting your shield every once in a while, and I can’t teach you to steel yourself when the time comes and you need to fight. But I can give you the tools with which you will be defending yourselves, your king, and your country! So everyone grab a sword and some training armor; we’re jumping right in!” He grins savagely and drags you over to the training equipment with him.

The two of you help each other into the light armor on the wall. It isn’t enough to protect you from any real damage and would be useless on the battlefield, but its enough to make sure no one gets any more injured than some bruising. The two of you grab the dull iron practice swords from the barrels near the armor and spread out among the recruits. At Tarwick’s command, they begin going at each other with their practice weapons. All of them are sloppy, wasting a lot of momentum on their swings and tripping over their own feet. You go around to correct what you can. Much of your advice boils down to the same few things.

“Don’t lean so far over; if your knees go past your toes you’ll fall over when you strike. Keep your head up; sticking your neck out is like offering your head to your opponent. Keep your weight off your heels; staying on the balls of your feel keeps you moving, and standing still means death.” Once they stop falling over themselves and each other, you begin making other corrections. You adjust grips on their swords, teach them to follow through on their swings, and slowly they improve.

Once the sun slips behind the lowest wall, you and Tarwick call the session to an end. All the recruits are bruised somewhere, one or two are limping from a mis-aimed strike, and there are a few slip lips but otherwise everyone is uninjured. Tarwick jogs up to you once the boys have cleared out and claps you on the shoulder hard enough to stagger an armos.

“Thanks for all your help out there today Link. The boys needed a good kick in the pants, I’ve been trying to keep them standing through the whole session for days!” You nod and think back to your own early days, when the only teachers you had were experience and a fairy that could make suggestions but needed to learn how fighting works even more than you did.

“Better they learn to now than when cornered by wolfos or stalfos,” you shrug. “And I think we should pull that tall one with the burns on his harms out of training; Ymor has been hounding me to find someone to replace Grott.” Grott, one of the castle’s newest farriers, had been knocked unconscious when he tried to fit Epona with new horseshoes without your knowledge. After Skill Kid kidnapped her all those years ago, she was quite testy with unfamiliar people.

“Ah, yes, its a shame what happened. You’d think a farrier familiar with that beast of yours would know better than to shoe her without you or Malon there. Epona damn near kicked his head in! Still not back on his feet, I take it?” You nod.

“Shame. I’ll pull the lad you mentioned aside tomorrow and show him to the smithy, don’t you worry.” You nod and duck into the castle for dinner. You and Zelda eat together, discussing the progress of the boys you trained today a little before lapsing into silence as you eat. Only when both of you are finished does Zelda bring up your dreams again.

“Link… I’m not sure if you noticed, as focused as you were on your training, but I left for the library as soon as I saw that you and Sir Tarwick had things in hand. In my reading, I may have discovered something relevant to our dreams… have you ever heard of something called the Keyblade?” You shake your head, but lean forward in interest. She’s using what you’ve come to call her Storyteller Voice.

“It is said that there is a great power the Goddesses gave the world aside from the Triforce, though its bearers have since departed for the heavens. This power is called the Keyblade. Its power is so great that its wielders can rend the earth itself, and each blade is full of light or darkness. If they were ever to meet, disaster would befall the whole world. What’s more, the Keyblade can unlock a path to the Sacred Realm, and it has been suggested that Keybearers of old were the creators of the Door of Time and its keys…

“If I am right, this power will soon come to our aid from the heavens themselves. Beginning tomorrow, I would like you to ride out in search of any trace of this key in our land of Hyrule. Will you do as I ask?” You can do nothing but nod in response, mouth suddenly dry and struck with the feeling that, once again, you will soon be in over your head.

“Thank you so much, Link! I will have the cooks prepare provisions for your journey. I pray the Goddesses will bless you with a smooth road and fair weather. For now, I will continue to search for more information about the Keyblade. Goodnight, Link.”

“G’night…” you mutter back as you stand and leave the dining room. You head back to your quarters, not to sleep or prepare for a night’s rest but to retrieve your sword and shield. The gilded sword, already reforged twice by the only sword smith in Termina, was recently worked on again, this time by the castle’s sword smith and head of the smithy Ymor. Its grip and guard were adjusted to fit your larger hands, but Ymor was not satisfied stopping there.

“If you are to be a hero, your sword’s strength much match your own,” he’d said. He melted down the blade of the Gilded Sword and reforged it into a rough rectangle of a similar length that the sword had been, then did the same with the best Hylian steel his smithy had ever produced. What had been the Gilded Sword became your new sword’s fuller, and the Hylian steel comprised the edge. At your suggestion, your blade was reforged into the general shape of the Master Sword, with a comparatively narrow ricasso and a gradual taper. The guard and hilt retain the color of the Gilded Sword.

You felt this blade needed no name, because it would take part in no grand journey. Still, Ymor and Zelda both insisted, so your newly forged weapon gained the name The Hero’s Sword.

You shake yourself out of your memories and attach the Hero’s Sword to the sword belt on your back and glance at the shields hanging on your wall before shaking your head and leaving your room without them. Guards once again nod to you as you pass, and you leave the castle behind and head into town. There are many paths in Hyrule that you simply refer to as “shortcuts”, and they take whoever stumbles upon them someplace far away; the same place each time. About a year ago, you discovered one behind the Temple of Time that leads to an out-of-the-way cave in Hyrule Field near the forest. No monsters or travelers ever seem to find it, and you have a sneaking suspicion that you only discovered it because you have a long and storied history of uncovering other secrets. The walk to the field takes only a minute from the shortcut behind the temple.

As usual, you have hardly set foot in the field before you are accosted by stalchildren and wolfos that rise from the earth to meet you. You keep your eye on the stalchildren, stepping this way and that as they begin to cluster in an effort to reach you. You draw your sword and backflip away, giving yourself room to attempt a move you’ve been working on. You settle into a low stance with your sword raised to the heavens as you gather power into your blade, and then you wait.

As soon as the time is right, you leap forward, slashing left, right, and then down as you land among the stalchildren. Energy rushes out of your sword in a shockwave, knocking the wolfos back and destroying the stalchildren. Only the wolfos remain. There are two of them, and you advance carefully, keeping your eye on both of them so they do not flank you. As the first charges, you leap to the side and tuck into a roll, bringing yourself around to its tail. You jump to your feet as soon as you can, slicing the beast’s tail off in one swing. It howls as it is enveloped in cold green fire, and you sidestep to avoid a strike from the remaining wolfos. One more back slice later, the second wolfos falls. A stalfos, having noticed the commotion, wanders over.

You sheathe your sword.

You keep your hand on its hilt, ready to draw at a moment’s notice. The stalfos creeps closer, closer, until finally it raises its shield within striking distance. Another moment passes. It raises its sword.

In the blink of an eye you draw your sword, spinning on your heel and stepping forward. As soon as the stalfos is within your field of vision again, you swing down, using the momentum from your swing to force more strength into your strike. The strike hits. The stalfos falls. No other monsters accost you, and you sit beneath a tree that feels faintly of the magic of the forest and do some quick sword care before sheathing it. You make a whistle out of the grass at your feet and play Saria’s song, then get up and head back to the castle for a good night’s rest.

Above your head, a star streaks through the sky unnoticed.


End file.
